The Droge of Gabrielides
by Ichabod Ebenezer
Summary: Nth Doctor part 11b of 12. The Doctor has been captured by bounty hunters from another galaxy, in service to a ruthless, but immeasurably wealthy drug lord. But who is this Droge of Gabrielides? Having had a thousand years to prepare after their last run in, is she prepared for the Oncoming Storm?
1. No Chance of Rescue

A silvery-matte cylinder of a ship descended through the atmosphere, though it had no wings, nor obvious means of propulsion. It came to rest while it was still some five meters above the bridge between structures. It would not be landing, for cautionary reasons. Three well-trained people in skin-tight white full-body suits jumped out the side hatch the moment it opened. They took up defensive positions while the last two stepped out flanking a white ovoid pod that hovered on its own, and came to rest about a meter off the ground. One of the group signaled toward the nearest opening, and they rushed forward, but stop at the entrance. Another one tossed a couple of disk-shaped pucks into the darkness beyond, which clattered across the marble floor and sparked to life as soon as they came to rest. The room inside instantly became too bright to look at, as the chemical flares activated.

The group ran in, two of them keeping a hand on the floating pod like angelic pall-bearers. The woman at the front of the group took some readings with a hand-held scanner, and pointed toward an off-kilter square hole in the far side of the room. "There," she said.

The man holding the flare pucks pulled another from his bag and threw it through the hole, banishing the darkness beyond.

"Move," Captain Hadrox commanded, and the group quickly stepped over into the room beyond. The pod scraped its underside against the bottom of the hole as it floated past.

The group had done this seventeen times in Matrix simulation already, and they'd only succeeded four of those times. Hadrox looked at her chronometer and shook her head. Hopefully the omnipresent threat of death would make them work more efficiently that they had in simulation.

The one with the scanner lead them off to the left, and they continued on in this way, through a maze of bookcases, stopping occasionally for the woman to wave her scanner about, collecting another reading, or for another chemical puck to be thrown out in front of them, lighting the way ahead.

They soon came to a round marble room with a compass rose at its center. Another member of the group ran to a terminal on the far side of the room. He pulled off his backpack and unzipped it. A computer unfolded and came to life within the backpack, and he quickly took two cables from his computer and plugged them into the terminal. After a few moments of furious typing, he disconnected the computer and re-zipped the backpack, nodding to the captain. She looked at her chronometer again. "Nine minutes, fourteen seconds. We're doing well. Everyone to the gravity platform."

They all step inside inside the borders of the compass rose, and they were surrounded by a curtain of energy, then swiftly plummeted into the depths of the world's core.

Captain Hadrox took a moment to examine the readings on the side of the floating pod. Satisfied that it was operating at peak efficiency, she nodded, stood, and addressed the man with the flare pucks. "Lisson, how many pucks remaining?"

He looked inside his pouch. "Only two," he said.

"Damn. You used up too many already. We won't have any for the return journey."

"Well, maybe you're okay risking the shadows up there, but I'm for safe rather than sorry."

"Not much we can do about it now, but we need another on this platform."

He pulled one out of the bag and held it grimly for a moment before dropping it. The air around the group was flooded with a bright white light.

The platform came to rest in an area as different from the Library above as it was possible to be. Metal and concrete instead of wood and marble. Cramped and oppressive instead of open and inviting.

The woman with the scanner pointed off down one of the artificially lit corridors. "There."

Lisson held onto the last puck until they reached the edge of the flare light, then rolled it into the darkened chamber ahead. It sparked to life, illuminating their destination: the computer interface at the core of the Library.

They ran into the room, and quickly identified the access ports. The man with the backpack whipped it off and set up next to the terminal. Captain Hadrox kept a close eye on the chronometer, and one hand on the pod. She kept glancing up to verify her team were putting everything in place.

They maneuvered the floating pod next to the access port, while the other one pulled the cables out of his computer. He swore.

"What is it?" Hadrax asked urgently.

"The ports are fried. It looks like someone used a sonic torch on them! This is going to take a lot longer than expected."

"We should abort!" Lisson said.

"No, there's no going back at this point. This mission is paramount. You know what it means for the fate of the universe if we fail." She looked around the room, nodding meaningfully to each of them, and waiting for them to nod in return.

"All in," said the woman with the scanner.

Lisson scowled, but in the end, he too nodded. "All in," he spat.

"Damn it, Doctor," Hadrax said under her breath. "Okay, Braden, pull off the access panel and splice in directly. Kidrick, help him." This had never happened in simulation. She could almost hear the flare pucks in the Library above sputtering their last.

The other woman who had been escorting the pod joined Braden at the access panel and started sorting and splicing wires. The captain tried to distract herself from checking the time by checking the status of the pod. All was still green.

After several tense minutes, they got the computer connected. They took another cable out and hooked it directly to the pod, then Braden pulled a switch beside the access port, and it hummed with activity. The pod began to glow, and a progress bar on the status panel began to fill in. The hum grew in pitch as the bar filled.

Once it reached a hundred percent, the humming stopped. The pod hissed vapor, and a seam appeared around the edge. The top half slid away. There was a woman inside, dressed identically to the rest of them, but with wild blonde hair. The vapor enshrouding her slowly dissipated. Kidrick returned to the side of the floating pod and pressed three fingers against the glowing white side of it, then twisted. There was an electric whine, like a flashbulb powering up. She slammed her fist down on the center of the invisible circle she had described, and the whine was replaced with a loud thunk.

The woman in the pod sat bolt upright with a pained gasp. She looked around at them all, her eyes wild and frightened.

"Pretney!" the captain called out.

The woman with the scanner ran around the side of the pod to kneel next to the woman. She held the scanner in front of her face. "Don't be afraid. You're safe. Do you remember your name?"

"Quickly, everyone. The moment she's able to walk, we have to be prepared to move. Braden, leave the computer. Don't waste time packing it. Kidrick. I want that gravity platform ready to return to the surface as soon as we get there." The group leapt into action.

The woman in the pod pushed the scanner away from her face. "Who… Where am I?"

"You're in the Library. Try to remember how you got here. A little disorientation is normal. Do you remember your name?" Pretney repeated.

"River. Professor River Song," she finally managed.

"Good," Pretney said. She put the scanner in a pouch at her belt and nodded to the captain. "Do you think you can stand, Professor Song? We have to move."

"Vashta Nerada!" River said. She swung her legs numbly over the side of the pod, and tried to put some weight on them. "No, I don't think so."

The captain lifted one of River's arms and put it around her shoulder. "That's to be expected. They've never had blood circulating through them before."

The dim electric lights of the room began to blink, and everyone looked up at them in fear. "Pretney, get the other side," the captain ordered.

River put out her arm toward Pretney, and the two lifted her to her feet. "To the platform, now," the captain said, and they ran River across the room, the toes of her shoes dragging behind her. The group moved on down the corridor and gathered on the center of the platform. It immediately shot upward.

"How much time did we lose?" Lisson asked.

"It doesn't matter," the captain scolded. "We move as fast as we can either way, and we pray to Omega that the pucks hold out against them."

"What's going on? Who are you?" River asked. "Why did you come for me?"

"I'm Captain Hadrax. We're from the CIA."

"Central Intelligence Agency?" River asked in surprise.

"Celestial Intervention Agency. We're Time Lords," Captain Hadrax said.

The platform arrived at the surface, forestalling any more questions. The chemical flares closest to them were still burning brightly, but in the distance, they could see the darkness encroaching.

"River, do your best to help. Everyone else, run!"

Lisson lead the way, followed by Kidrick. Hadrax and Pretney helped River to hobble along after them, and Braden took up the rear. River did her best, but it felt like both her legs were asleep. Each step was painful pins and needles along the full length.

They made it to a corridor that had bookshelves coming in from alternating sides, and as the pucks began to run out of fuel, the radii of safety began to shrink and separate.

Lisson stepped across the gap between two lighted areas and immediately began to convulse. Kidrick grabbed him by the arm, trying to pull him back into the light. Lisson turned toward her, a look of shock, rather than fear or pain, on his face. The arm of his suit came away in Kidrick's hand, revealing only bone underneath. In an instant, the skin was eaten away from his skull, and his hair drifted to the floor. A moment later, his suit toppled over.

Kidrick dropped the arm she was holding, and the remaining group huddled together around the puck.

"Shields on, everyone. We still have to move." She pressed a small button at the collar of River's suit, then did her own. River felt a tingling sensation over her face and scalp.

The captain nudged the puck with her foot, pushing it forward until the circle of light they were in met the next one. "Go. We haven't time to waste."

They ran to the next puck, then edged it forward and ran to the next. River pushed away from Hadrax and Pretney. "I think I can manage now." The captain nodded and let go, then rushed with Kidrick on to the next light. River joined them, then the others.

They pushed on in this accordion style, through the stacks of books. All the while, the light was getting fainter and the urgency to progress faster became more urgent. That's why everyone was surprised when River stopped them.

"Do you need help?" the captain asked.

"No, it's not me. It's her." River pointed to Kidrick. "She's got two shadows."

Kidrick looked down, and everyone else backed away, as far as the light circle would allow. The captain tried to keep them on track. "Don't panic. They can't swarm if you keep to the light. The shield should keep them out if there aren't too many."

"It really won't," River said. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. It feels like centuries ago, but at the same time, only yesterday. I watched my friends get eaten one by one. Once the Vashta Nerada latch onto a food source, they never let go."

"We can't just leave her here," Braden said.

"She can come with us," the captain said. "Just don't cross her shadow." She pushed the puck forward with her foot, then looked back up. Where Kidrick had been standing a moment ago, only her skeleton remained. The suit fell to the ground.

"Run!" River said.

They ran to the next circle of light, and River didn't even stop when they got there, she kicked the puck forward and ran along with it, staying just inside the circle of light. They reached the next puck, and she kicked both of them forward, but the next one was sputtering out, and it lay in front of a square hole cut in the wall. There would be no kicking a puck through that.

"Torches out!" the captain called out. River watched frantically as the Time Lords all pulled a torch from a pouch at their back. She felt around for hers, and pulled the torch out and switched it on.

They stood in a circle with their torches pointed outward. "Through the hole, quickly," River said.

They climbed over, two at a time, and made for the atrium, under the skylight, backs pressed together. They breathed again once they reached it. River shone her torch at the exit, daylight visible outside. No more than five meters. So close, but certain death between them and escape.

"How long can we stay here?" River asked, pointing her torch at the skylight above them.

"There are several hours still before sunset, but what does it gain us to wait?"

"Time to think. Which direction is sunset?"

Pretney pointed her torch at the opposite wall.

"Damn. You couldn't have found a westward-facing exit? How about guns? Do we have any weapons?"

"The Doctor doesn't approve of guns… we thought—"

"Rule number seven: Never confuse me with my husband!"

"What good would guns be against the Vashta Nerada?"

"Not against them! To blow a hole through the wall and let the sunlight in! Okay. Torches it is, then. If we lay them here, side by side, we can create a path…" She set hers down.

"Captain, your shadow…" Braden said. The captain looked down to see she had two.

"Damn," she said. Her voice was full of resignation. "It was an honor serving with you all. Remember the mission is more important than our lives. River Song must survive." She dug into a pouch at her side and threw something to River.

River unwrapped the chamois-like material to find a vortex manipulator and her sonic screwdriver. She looked back up just in time to see the captain's face peeled from the bone beneath. She looked to the two remaining Time Lords. "But why? What is the mission? What did you gain by resurrecting me? What could possibly be worth so many Time Lord deaths?"

"It's the Doctor, ma'am," Braden said. "And it had to be you. He is in desperate trouble, and he would never accept our aid."

Pretney stood with her back to them, shining her torch in a wide arc. "Here ma'am." She held a pistol out toward River without looking. River took it with numb fingers. "It wouldn't do much good against masonry, ma'am, but hopefully you'll find use for a staser."

"Why are you talking like that? We've got a vortex manipulator! It can take three!"

"Sorry ma'am, it's too late for me." She lowered her head to look at their feet. "For _us_. Both of the Time Lords had multiple shadows.

* * *

The Doctor sat against the bars of his bare cell, whistling a somber Venusian tune and idly tapping at the bars with his handcuffs as a percussive accompaniment.

The security door at the end of his little hallway buzzed, and a light turned green over the top of it before it slid open. Eric marched in, flanked by the two smaller hunters, Wilkit and Spine. Despite the emotionless appearance of the metallic blue armor that the Doctor never saw him without, Eric was obviously infuriated. He came to a stop just in front of the bars, staring down at the Doctor with his glowing electronic eyes. "Search him," he said in his gravelly voice.

"But we already searched him," either Wilkit or Spine said. It was impossible to tell them apart. They were born twins, and any trace of individuality was completely overwhelmed by the effects of the drugs being constantly pumped into their systems. "Took us _forever_ to empty his pockets."

"Yeah. We pulled out five bags of random dren!" the other one agreed.

"Speaking of… If I could just get my harmonica back… my mouth is getting sore from whistling," the Doctor said.

"Well search him again!" Eric yelled, ignoring the Doctor's request. "If he has so much as a sonic navel-piercing, I want it ripped out of him! I know he's getting out of this cell, I just don't know how!"

They opened up the cell and picked the Doctor up by the handcuffs. They slammed him against the wall and one started sticking his hands, elbow deep, into the Doctor's pants pockets, while the other lifted his shirt and hoodie up over his head, patting him down.

"Save yourself some trouble, Doctor, and tell me how you're doing it," Eric growled.

"Doing what, exactly, if you don't mind? Sorry if it sounds like I'm enjoying this a bit, it's just that this is the first real conversation I've had in the last month."

"Getting out of your cell!" Eric yelled, slamming a huge fist against the bars, denting them slightly. "Every now and then, that camera glitches, and when it comes back, you're not in your cell. By the time I send someone down here, you're back where you belong, but when we review the footage, there's another convenient glitch.

"Well, that makes no sense at all. If I can get out of this cell so easily, why do you always find me back in it?"

"I don't know! But I've never seen so many things go wrong on board this ship, and I'm certain you're responsible. The soup dispenser in my cabin gave me a bowl of toxic mud this morning!"

"I don't know about you, but I'd get my engineer on that right away," the Doctor advised.

"Glorr was my engineer, and she hasn't been seen in days!" Eric yelled. "I sent her down here to check on you when you disappeared from the camera, and nobody's seen her since!"

"Talk about your dereliction of duty!" the Doctor sympathized.

Eric growled with rage and punched the wall, leaving behind a sizable impression of his fist.

"He's clean, Eric," the twins announced timidly.

"Well then, scan him! He must have swallowed something, or its behind his eyeball, or in the filling of a molar!"

"There's really not, you know," the Doctor said levelly.

Eric stood staring through the bars of the Doctor's cell at him for a long while. The Doctor stared right back into the LED eyes of his suit. Finally, Eric took a more relaxed posture. "In case you thought you got rid of Z'krith as well, you didn't. We had to turn the ship around, but we found him floating out in space. He'll make a full recovery, and I can't wait to hear his story. Do you want to give me your version first?"

"There's not much to tell, really," the Doctor said with exaggerated innocence. "He came to visit me. She? I can never really tell with Krellians."

"He. Go on." Eric refused to rise to the taunting.

"He seemed to think like you do. That I had something to do with Glorr's disappearance. I told him that she had come to see me, but she left soon afterward. I told him I had reason to believe that Glorr may have gone to inspect Port Airlock 51-B." He shrugged.

"And why did you tell him that?" Eric growled at him.

"Well, mostly because I didn't know his species could survive in a vacuum without an environment suit."

Eric looked like he was going to lose it entirely. He pulled back his fist as if to punch the wall again, but stopped himself. He grasped the bars of the cell as if he would pull them apart, but didn't. Finally, he reached between the bars for the Doctor's throat, but once again stopped before reaching him.

"Spine!" he yelled.

The twin on the Doctor's right flinched. "Yes Eric?"

"Hit him. A lot. I'm going to see if Z'krith is able to speak yet." He turned to leave. "I want to hear from you later about the Doctor's screams."

Spine smiled broadly and punched the Doctor hard in the lower back. The Doctor gasped, and would have fallen to his knees except Wilkit was holding him pressed against the wall. As soon as he had breath to speak, he called out, "Eric!"

The hulking beast in baby blue armor stopped, and turned in place just before reaching the security door.

"It's not your fault. You were just doing what bounty hunters do. I went with you because I wanted to go. I have to put a stop to this, and you were a means to that end. But understand this. After I've dealt with the Droge, if you are subjugating a star system, you'll be next on my list."

Eric stood in place for a long time. "I'll be on the bridge. Bring me stories of his pain."

* * *

The bounty hunters' ship put down just below the steps to the Droge's Grand Palace. The ramp lowered onto the red carpet, and Eric walked out, standing for a moment on the solid ground of the steps, the began ascending to the palace high above. The twins followed, back in their sleeveless armor. The two could easily be told apart at this point, as one had his arm in a cast, and the other walked with a limp. Then came the crystalline Mantis form of Z'krith, seemingly recovered from the trauma he had suffered in the rigors of deep space. Last down the ramp was the two-headed giant they called Mycotis. In one massive hand it was carrying the Doctor, wrapped in chains from head to toe, with a metal plate clamped over his mouth.

Both sides of the red carpet were flanked by guards in symbolic regalia, holding halberds at rest. A crowd, more massive than the population of many planets, had gathered in the open area at the bottom of the stairs, surrounding the ship. The bounty hunters carried the Doctor up the seemingly endless stairs to the sounds of the cheering crowd.

At the top of the steps was a wide open area. A mountain top had been leveled and paved to put the palace on. Pools and fountains lined both sides of the path to the grand doors of the palace. The red-trimmed golden flags of the Droge hung down on either sides of the massive doors behind corinthian columns. The palace sprawled for miles, a triumph of romanesque architecture, with white marble and red tile roofs, accented with shining gold inlays.

They crossed the courtyard and entered under the tall doors. The Droge's receiving room looked more like a cathedral. It was well lit, with orb lights suspended from mighty pillars, and a large stained-glass skylight depicting the Droge floating in the open sky surrounded by cherubim. There were pews set up from just inside the doors, as far as the eye could see, to the distant curtains of red-trimmed gold. From here, the Droge's throne looked like a spec, but still, all the pews were filled with pilgrims, penitents and visitors. The ones lining the aisle held rotten fruits which they hurled at the Doctor as he passed, careful not to strike the bounty hunters, whom they were cheering loudly.

By the time they got to the dais, the Doctor was dripping with liquid from some of the juicier vegetables and covered with leafy bits that had stuck to it.

The Droge sat on a golden throne, padded in red velvet. She watched the procession with a joyous smile. She was a pretty waif of a girl who looked to be barely out of her teens, with dramatic makeup and a long ponytail braided with gold. Her apparent youth was a facade though, because it had been nearly a thousand years since the Doctor had last met her, and she had been busy during that time, rebuilding and then expanding her empire.

On one side of the throne stood her husbands, dressed only in loincloths. One held a bowl of fruit, the next a pitcher and chalice, and the last held a tincture of perfume. On the other side of her stood her wives. They wore full length gowns, nearly sheer, with bejeweled necklaces, and veils across their faces. One held a pitcher of water, another held a data display tablet, and the last held a lute. Each stood ready to service the Droge's slightest whim at a moment's notice.

Mycotis set the Doctor down on his feet, keeping a hand on the end of his chain to keep him from falling over. The rest of the bounty hunters stood at attention in a row in front of the Droge's throne. Eric gave a silent signal and the group bowed as one. If anything, the cheering from the crowd got louder.

The Droge rocked back and forth in her throne with excitement. She relished the cheering of the crowd for another several moments, then finally, held up one finger. The crowd instantly fell silent. She waited a few moments more before speaking.

"You know," she said, "there were days — dark days indeed — when I thought this moment would never come. But this day?" She smiled a dazzling white smile. "This is a good one. Damn, it's good! I'm thinking of declaring this a holiday. The whole galaxy, today only, party like we just caught _the Doctor_."

She looked around at the crowd, then back at him. An evil glint entered her eye. "Yeah. That's what I'm doing. Work can wait until tomorrow. From this day forward, every Gabrielidan year, everyone is to party. If I hear of anyone having anything less than a stellar time, that's the last drop of milk they ever get."

There was silence after her words, until she looked up at the crowd, and a deafening cheer went up. She smiled and held up a finger. The crowd quieted once more.

"So, I get all the chains. A bit kinky, really, but I understand. You don't want him to escape. Very smart, he's pretty wily. But what's up with the gag? My favorite part is hearing them beg." She put on a mock whiny voice. "Please, I'm sorry, I'll never do it again. Someone help me for god's sake. Hey, those were my favorite fingers." The smile disappeared from her face, and her voice returned to normal. "What's the point of torturing them if you can't hear them beg?"

Eric cleared his throat. "Yes, well, your majesty. We discovered a little late, that the Doctor is just as dangerous with his tongue left free as the rest of him. He talked two of my crew separately into stepping out of an airlock into deep space, then he convinced these two geniuses that he'd wired up the self-destruct, and it was up to them to fix it."

The Droge laughed, a hearty, genuine laugh. "That's rich!" she said when she could speak again. She wiped away a tear. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, I will make him pay a thousand times over for that. And besides, you have fewer ways to split your prize now, don't you?"

"Yes, your majesty," Eric said with a bow.

"Well, off with you then. Don't spend your star system all in one place. Guards! Get him out of those chains and that muzzle."

A group of guards in golden armor took hold of the Doctor and started unwinding the chains. One of the approached, and grabbed his muzzle.

"Are you sure that is wise, majesty?" Eric asked. Everyone stopped, and the room went silent as the entire assemblage held their breath.

"You bring me a wanted fugitive, and suddenly you think you're my bloody counsel? Of course I think it was wise, or else I wouldn't have said it. If he runs he's not going to get very far, and I want to hear his next words. I bet he's been planning them since you left Earth. I bet he's got a whole speech prepared, and I bet it starts with, 'I'm going to give you one chance.' Am I right, Doctor?" She leaned forward in her throne.

The guard removed the muzzle clamped over the Doctor's mouth. He licked his lips and exercised his jaw, then blew at a piece of lettuce that had stuck to his face. He turned to Eric and said, "Remember what I said. Don't get on my bad side."

"Hey! Eyes front, Time Lord!" the Droge shouted. She pointed a finger at Eric. "And what are you still doing here? Stop distracting my prisoner and get the hell out of here before my patience and my bounty expire."

Eric bowed again, then turned and left, preceded by the rest of his crew.

"Bring him to me. Cast him to the ground in front of me!" The guards finished cutting through the chains and shoved the Doctor roughly to the ground in front of her throne. "Now beg! Beg me for mercy. I want to hear it. I want to televise it across the galaxy!"

The Doctor looked up at her. "I'm not going to beg you. I'm going to stop you. Again."

"No! You did it wrong. You went with the boring, predictable, unrealistic answer. Guards!"

One of the guards shoved an electric prod into the base of his spine. The Doctor screamed in pain, his back arching reflexively.

"Now do its right this time."

The Doctor looked up again, breathing heavily. For the first time, he noticed the woman directly to the Droge's left. Even with the veil, he'd know those eyes, that hair anywhere. And she was edging closer to the Droge. Their eyes locked.

"No!" the Doctor yelled.

The Droge's expression changed to one of confusion. She saw his gaze, and started to turn toward River.

"Do your worst to me, Droge of Gabrielides, I will never submit!" he yelled. The Droge turned back toward him. "The only reason I'm here now is because I _wanted_ this face-off. I don't know how you've risen to power once again after I defeated you the last time, but I promise that I will bring you down, and that _no one_ will rise to replace you!"

The Doctor was saying all this to the Droge, but River understood that it was really directed at her. She hesitated a moment longer, with her hand inside the mouth of the water pitcher, the butt of a staser pistol barely visible to him there. In the end, she gave one small nod toward the Doctor, and stepped back away from the Droge, removing her hand from the pitcher.

"Well, then," the Droge said, in a low, dangerous voice. "I'll take your advice and do my worst. Guards! Dose him!"

One of the guards grabbed him by the hair and pulled him up into a kneeling position, while another couple guards grabbed him by the arms.

"Wait, wait, wait," the Doctor said. "You don't have to do this."

The smile returned to the Droge's face, and a twinkle to her eye. "I'm the Droge. I don't _have_ to do anything."

A fourth guard pushed the Doctor's face to the side and jammed a syringe deep into his neck. A rush of euphoria went with it.

The guards let go of the Doctor, and he slumped back onto all fours. The Droge sat back in her throne.

She sighed. "That was the moment, right there, where you became mine. But the moment when you realize it comes a little later. The bit in the middle is boring as hell. Guards, take him to a cell. Bring him back to me when he starts screaming."


	2. Addiction

They threw the Doctor into an unfurnished cell, and the plexiglass door slid shut behind him. He waited for the guards to depart, then stood and walked around his cell, examining it thoroughly. He knelt by the clear door and crawled along its length, looking into the track for the mechanism that opened and closed it. He stood and walked back along the door, putting his fingers through the air holes bored along the length of the sheet. His fingertip just wiggled through the other side of the thick glass.

He went along the other three walls, rapping with the back of his knuckle, first low, then at head-height, then as high as he could reach. He listened intently at the wall in each spot as he moved around the room. The only feature in the room was a drain hole that either served for his lavatory or where they hosed out the vomit of withdrawal.

He felt his own pulse. So far, both hearts were beating calmly. Whatever horrors awaited him, they hadn't begun yet. He nodded in satisfaction.

He stood stock still and listened. He managed to pinpoint the buzz of three different cameras that were too tiny to be seen. He pointed to each in turn. Finally, he pressed his back against the far wall, and lowered himself to sitting, cross-legged. He closed his eyes and waited.

Fifteen minutes later, he still wasn't feeling any ill effect. In fact, he felt good; hopeful even. The symptoms he felt would lead him to the chemical composition of the drug, and allow him to create a counter-agent. At that point it was merely a matter of distribution. How to spread the cure to the rest of the galaxy? She was sure to have learned from the last time, and protected her store, making it impossible to corrupt.

He heard the familiar sound of a sonic screwdriver activating, and opened one eye. River Song came running up to the glassy door. "I've disabled the cameras, and the man watching them is dreaming of lost love. We have five minutes before my absence is noticed."

The Doctor stood up and walked to the door. He pressed his palms against it. "I'm glad to see you, but you didn't need to come," he said.

River pounded one fist against the glass, which rang like a deep bell. "How could you be so stupid!" she yelled.

"Me? You were going to kill her. Or try to take her hostage or something. Do you have any idea what kind of power vacuum that would create?"

"It's better than letting her drug you! You have no idea whether your Time Lord physiology would protect you from its effects! It could even be fatal!"

"I considered that, and dismissed it as highly unlikely. Well, apart from the fatal withdrawal part. That will still get me, but only if I don't find a cure. Which I will. Tell me, have you seen the effects of withdrawal? What can I expect."

She huffed in frustration. "I've never seen it all the way. Everyone eventually gets their dose, but the distributers delight in letting it go for a while. Withdrawal victims sweat, and they shake. Later on they get muscle spasms and convulsions. But long before that, they will do anything, perform any cruelty, just to get their next dose. What are you feeling so far?"

The Doctor shook his head. "There was a pleasant sensation when I was first injected, but that's worn off. My hearts rate are slightly higher than normal, but I'm not sure it's the drug. There's no high, no loss of sensation, no visual impairment, and so far as I can tell, no diminishment of my mental acuity. And what about you? What kind of regiment do they have you on?"

"Nothing. The entire galaxy has been hooked on the stuff for centuries. It never occurred to them that I wouldn't be on it already. After the first dose, they never have to force anyone to take it, they will happily, even greedily do it themselves. They don't even need to force mothers to give it to their babies. They are born addicted, and the mother willingly does them within hours of birth. They keep handing me my dose, and when I'm alone, I squirt it into the flowers."

"So, they've never injected you, or snuck it into your food, and they have no idea you're clean?"

"None at all. But then, I've only been here a few days, and I don't intend to be here much longer. My plan had been to kill the Droge and whisk you away before you could get injected, but let's just say we're onto Plan B at this point, shall we? Let's get you out of there, and figure out where to go. I was thinking Logopolis. The Monitor can help us come up with a cure for you."

"No."

"Okay, somewhere else then." She ran her sonic along the seam.

"No."

"Mine ears deceive me, Love. I'm hearing you say 'no' to a plan that hasn't yet been formulated. We're only at the no-brainer part where we escape from the person who's currently killing you."

"River, stop it. If I wanted to escape her, it would have been far easier just not to show up at all. But that has consequences I'm not willing to pay. Taking the injection myself was just the first stage in creating the cure. I can see its effects, side-effects and withdrawal symptoms first hand. The Logopolitans may be superb mathematicians, but there is no better laboratory than one's own body. I'm taking the Droge down. Before I leave this world, the galaxy will be free. And it's not enough to kill her. Someone will step in and take her place. And in the ridiculous chance that no one does, an entire galaxy dies of painful withdrawal! I won't have that on my conscience."

"Okay. We'll stay. Just tell me how I can help," River said.

"You should just go. Now, before you are found out. I can't believe how lucky you've been so far."

"Luck had nothing to do with it. I'm just that good. And I can't go yet, my Love, I'm your backup."

"Backup? Since when do _I_ need backup?"

"The CIA were dead certain that you did."

"The CIA? Then, you've been to Gallifrey? I suppose that explains the staser. But if you've… then… wait. Diaries. Now."

She stood back, lifting her arms to show off the nearly transparent gown she was wearing. "Just where do you imagine I'm hiding my diary?"

"Where are you hiding the staser?"

She smiled. "Spoilers."

"I don't think either of us need our diary to remember the last place we saw each other. Rutans, Earth, late Eighties." The Doctor counted it off on three fingers.

River followed suit with three fingers of her own. "Vashta Nerada, The Library, Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire."

The Doctor audibly caught his breath. "But that's not possible."

"Afraid so, Sweetie."

"But you died!"

"And yet, here I am."

"But everything since then! Madam Vastra and Trenzalore! How —"

River squinted, gazing up toward the corner of the room. "That bit I'm a little fuzzy on. It's like a dream that never quite happened. I know I did something very clever, but it's no more real to me now than Doctor Moon, or the rest of the crew that were saved by CAL. It may have been a moment ago, or it may have been years. Who can say?"

The Doctor took a couple involuntary steps, and put a hand to his head.

"I know, it's a lot to take in," River said, "but we should be worrying about the present situation."

"No. It's not that. A sudden wave of weakness and nausea… It's passed now."

"Then you must be feeling the first symptoms of withdrawal. I heard that it's quick the first time…"

The Doctor looked down at his left hand, which River now noticed was clenched into a fist. "It started a couple minutes ago. Pain up and down my left side. I can't relax my muscles."

"I'm sorry, my Love, but it's going to get a lot worse from there. And if you really intend to stay, then I have to leave. The Droge is going to want to see you suffer, so the guards will be coming soon." She stood for a moment longer, watching with sad eyes, then pressed two fingers against her lips, then to the glass between her and the Doctor. She left at a run.

Within minutes, the Doctor began to sweat. Time Lords have sophisticated means of regulating their internal temperature, but his was clearly no longer functioning correctly. He started to shiver, and soon after, he swooned again. He lay down on the floor and curled up.

Not long afterward, the door opened and two guards stepped in. The Doctor continued to shiver with his eyes tightly shut, and made no reaction to their entry. They grabbed him, one under each arm, and dragged him from the cell.

* * *

The Doctor was returned to the throne room, cleared this time, aside from a couple dozen guards. The crowd was gone, and the husbands and wives as well. The two guards dragging him, threw him to the floor, where he returned to his fetal position and continued to shiver violently.

The Droge laughed. It wasn't a cruel-sounding laugh, or maniacal in any way. Heard on its own, and without context, it sounded bright and cheery, a response to something genuinely funny, though it went on too long. She began pounding the arm of her throne. "Yes!" she cried.

She continued to laugh for a while longer, then got herself under control and wiped a tear from her eye. "Oh, that is nice. God, I wish there were someone around from the old days to enjoy this along with me, but of course they're all gone now, and it's just you and me Doctor!" She leaned forward. "You look so different, but it's still you. You remember the old days, don't you Doctor? Are you enjoying this now, as much as I am?"

The Doctor reacted to the sound of her voice. He raised his head unsteadily, and pushed himself around on the floor until he could see her.

"Yoo-hoo!" she called, waving at him. "I'm over here. Damn, you're pathetic. You know that? Back in the day, it was all witty comebacks and toothy smiles, but now look at you. What is that, drool?"

He set his head back down on the marble floor. Panting with the effort of holding it up for so long. His shivering was devolving into convulsions now, but he made an effort again, to speak this time. He opened his eyes, and said in a halting voice, "There's something… wrong."

"Yeah, I know, you moron. It's the Milk, or lack thereof, it's killing you. I'm told your physiology is different from our own, so it's hard to get the dosage right. I don't know if I'm killing you now, or if it'll kill you to give you another dose." She got a quizzical expression on her face. "I'm trying to decide if I care."

The Doctor sighed, and took several deep breaths before trying to lift his head again. He spoke in a louder, though no less halting voice, "No, something's wrong… with you!"

There was dead silence in the throne room as the Doctor's words hit them like a slap to the face.

"Me?" The Droge said, recovering. "No, I'm good. Today, I'm spectacular. I'd be more worried about yourself there, chief."

With obvious effort, the Doctor managed to get one arm under him and he propped himself up. "Nope. It's going to bug me now," he managed. "What is it?" Then another convulsion went through him and he curled back up.

"Those right there are muscle spasms as your nervous system goes into overload. You're not feeling it, I suppose, but there's a bit of brain damage that goes along with it. I just wanted you to know that."

He forced himself back up onto his elbow as the spasm subsided. "It's your throne. You never so much as wiggle on it." He let out a yell as another spasm went through him, but he managed to retain his position. "Last time we met, you couldn't wait to slap me, to spit in my face, but not this time. You aren't moving." He gasped, then continued. "You can't, can you? You're paralyzed! You aren't hitting me because you can't stand. You can't even move." A much larger spasm went through him and he fell back to the ground.

All traces of amusement were gone from the Droge's face. She watched him thrash about on the ground, but the joy had gone. "As much as I enjoy watching you in pain, Doctor, I think you're dying too quickly. I can't have that. We have to stop your pain now, so you can suffer more in the long term. I'm going to make this last. It'll be just you and me again, a thousand years from now. You, begging for another dose, and me laughing."

She looked down at herself, and placed a hand on one of her lovely legs. She caressed it. "But it pisses me off that you're right. Well, half right. I can't stand, but it's not because there's something wrong with me. I'm doing really, really well."

She grabbed her leg with both hands, and removed it. She set it aside, and removed the other. They were only props. "Procure a fresh dose," she commanded, then she turned back to the Doctor. "Last time, you were able to infiltrate my distribution system. I learned from my mistake, and I'm keeping distribution in house now, you might say." She nodded to one of the guards.

The guard left his place in line and operated a rope-pull. The curtain behind the Droge's throne quickly rose. There was a room beyond it, that if it hadn't been connected to the throne room, would have been considered cavernous. There were a hundred or more lab technicians working at long tables, carefully measuring out and filling ampoules with the milky-white drug. Shipping boxes were filled with the ampoules and stacked against the far wall by workers in orange jumpsuits. Drones arrived through a hexagonal doorway, high in the far wall, scanned boxes, selected them, and ferried them out through a second doorway just to the right of the first.

Directly behind the Droge's throne was a pale organic construct that occasionally moved in a sort of peristaltic wave. The thing filled the length of the room, and near the middle, bulged nearly five meters in height. It looked like an enormous, contented maggot. The lab technicians were approaching this creature's sides, and leaving with more of the drug in its raw state.

The Doctor put out one arm and dragged himself across the floor, hoping to see past the throne to the face of the creature. "You still don't get it, do you?" the Droge asked. "And everyone was convinced you were so clever."

She snapped her fingers, and two of her guards approached the throne. They took a firm hold of each side of the throne, and pulled. It came apart at an invisible seam running down the center, leaving the Droge's torso suspended dead-center in front of the maggot. With dawning horror, the Doctor realized that what he thought had been a separate creature was in fact part of her.

The Droge saw his horrified expression and smiled. She placed her hands just above where her hips should be and stretched first to one side, then to the other. Her abdomen bent at a ninety degree angle and spread out quickly from her waist like a hoop skirt. Along her sides, there were no appendages, but instead a series of ducts which were in constant motion. As the peristaltic wave passed each one, a large droplet of the puss-like Milk was excreted, and lab technicians came to collect it and quickly separate it into individual doses.

"Oh, what have you done to yourself?" the Doctor asked in a quiet voice.

"After you sent out an antidote for my old drug to all corners of the galaxy, life got rather hard for me. There were attempts on my life! Those revolting commoners actually rose up against me! You left, and in your wake, was rebellion, vandalism, anarchy, death and war! That was your legacy. If you thought I would just say, 'Oh, shucks,' and the galaxy would just peacefully go about its business, then you are a fool.

"Without the drug, I didn't rule, and without my rule, there was chaos. Some of my former distributers were loyal to me, and they protected me. We worked on gene editing, with our ultimate goal to produce a new drug from my own body. If I was the source of the drug, no one could assassinate me without killing themselves as well, and everyone they cared about. The drug was stronger than the old one too. More painful withdrawals, a longer period before death, and none of the soporific effects of the old opiate. We started distribution immediately, and order slowly returned.

"I would have to grow enormous to produce enough for our needs, and I accepted this. After the changes began, it didn't even feel like a hardship. I can still remember how it felt to miss having legs at first. They were a nice pair of legs. But now, it's no biggie. So, Doctor, you ask what I did to myself? I _improved_. And I fixed the mess you made. And I _got you_." She turned toward the closest guard, sudden anger flashing. "Now, where's the damned dose!"

The guard jumped, and quickly approached one of the work benches. He found a syringe and ran to one of the ducts along the Droge's side. When the milky-white droplet appeared, he filled the syringe and approached the Doctor.

"No. Don't," the Doctor said. One arm was clenched tight and curled up against his chest, but he reached out with the other in an attempt to drag himself away from the approaching guard.

The Droge leaned toward him, all anger gone, replaced by a vicious smile. "You know, I think I'm going to make you beg for the next one. But I'll give you this one for free." She looked to two other guards. "You two help him."

The two guards cut off his pathetic escape, and knelt down to immobilize his convulsing limbs. One of the guards held his head down to expose his neck.

"Relax, Doctor," came the Droge's triumphant voice. "You'll feel so much better after a little of mama's Milk."

"No!" he yelled at the top of his lungs as the guard with the syringe plunged it into the muscle of his neck.

* * *

The Doctor was dragged back to his cell while the Droge's throne was reassembled. His spasms were lessening, but he was still in a great deal of pain from all the muscle tears he had suffered during withdrawal. By the time they dropped him on the concrete floor and the door closed behind him, he was again able to stand on his own. There was some sort of protein bar on a paper plate sitting in his cell, along with a cup of water, but he left them untouched.

He wiped drool from his chin and took a moment to compose himself, straightening out his clothes and his hair. Then he put two fingers to his throat, taking his pulse, first on one side, then on the other. He nodded to himself, then determined the central point of the room and stood on it. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, listening intently. He frowned and shook his head, then opened his eyes and sat.

Twenty minutes passed by with him in a meditative pose, when an unseen door slid open. The Doctor climbed to his feet as River Song rushed in. "I'm sorry it took me so long to get away," she said after disabling the surveillance.

"You need to go. Now," the Doctor said. "Just get on a ship and get as far away from here as possible."

River stopped short. "Why? What has happened?"

"What do you know about your new wife?"

"Fiancé, actually, the ceremony is in —"

"Whatever. Do you know what she keeps behind the curtain?"

"No. I suspect that's where they're manufacturing the Milk, but I can never seem to find a time to investigate when she isn't there."

"That's because she can't move from the spot. Most of her is behind the curtain. She's been genetically altered to produce the Milk herself. Enough to supply the entire galaxy. I can't even imagine what she's feeding on, but it must be nearly constant to supply that much."

River is the sort of person who can normally handle anything, but the disgust she felt showed clearly on her face.

"She made me take a dose directly from the source, and it's only a matter of time before she does the same with you. Probably during the ceremony."

"Then we'd best resolve the issue before then, because I'm not going anywhere without you." River's sonic buzzed in her hand as she attempted to open the door.

"Because you're my backup. I thought you had more faith in me. Did it really never occur to you that I'd arrange for my own?"

"You mean you already have backup?"

"Well, more like someone who tagged along on an ill-conceived notion, and now we're co-dependently stuck with each other." There was a click somewhere, and the glass between them slid away to recess into the wall. The Doctor motioned with a flourish toward an empty spot on River's side of the glass. "River, I'd like you to meet Kate Stewart of UNIT."

There was a momentary shimmer in the air in front of River, and a woman with short-cropped blonde hair and a grey scarf materialized. "A pleasure. I've heard a lot about you." She stuck out her hand to shake.

River took it tentatively, and shook. She quickly recovered. "You know better than to believe any of it, don't you?" she asked.

"Most of it was from you, actually. There's a mandatory mind wipe upon leaving the Black Archive."

"Hmm. Well, that goes double if you heard it from me." She looked to the Doctor with a question in her eyes. "But, how?"

"Her belt buckle projects a distortion field, both visual and mental, making her invisible and subconsciously avoided. I'd bet it's based on the watch you got me for our first anniversary. Normally it only lasts a few minutes, but we've re-jiggered it to pull power from my sonic. She snuck on board the bounty hunter's ship, thinking she could help, and now she's my responsibility and constant companion. She helped me out of the cell a time or two during our journey here. Also helped me leave an impression on the bounty hunter crew."

Kate stepped in. "I think I'm more likely the reason any of them are still around to tell the tale."

"Kate, you must be starving," the Doctor said, scooting the paper plate toward her with one foot. "Help yourself."

Kate didn't argue, and picked up the protein bar, taking large, greedy bites. She finished the cup of water in one go.

River shook her head. "This doesn't change anything. If the Time Lords thought it was important, enough to die making sure I got here, they must have known you would need me."

The Doctor stood thinking, with a look of distaste on his face. "You're right of course. They must have seen it in the Matrix. But why do they even care? What do they want me for? What am I going to owe them after this?"

"I can't answer any of those questions, I'm afraid. But we're wasting time talking about it. What can I do to help?" River said.

"I need access to lab equipment, and the Droge's new lab obviously won't work. I was going to send Kate out looking for one, but you may have a better chance of gaining access."

"I can do better than that. The lab where they made the previous drug still exists. It's been preserved, but no one ever goes there." River strapped on her vortex manipulator and began typing in coordinates. "Both of you, take my arm."

Kate and the Doctor grabbed hold, and she pressed a final button.

The three of them disappeared from the Doctor's cell, and reappeared a moment later, half-way across the city, in a small, but modern laboratory. The ghosts of lab equipment and old computer stations lay covered in plastic in the darkened room.

The Doctor looked around appreciatively. "Mass spectrometer, CRISPR, sequencer, centrifuge, beakers, test tubes, Bunsen burners, and more computers than you can shake a stick at. Just like I remember it. This will do nicely." He started removing the plastic drop cloths from a bank of equipment. "Since this is really a mothballed drug lab, there ought to be a few syringes around. Kate, could you have a look? River, let's see if we can get some power to these things. No lights though. I'd prefer not to invite company."

The Doctor started setting up a rack of stoppered tubes, and collected flasks and stands. He opened up a cupboard of basic supplies, and was going through them when Kate approached with a tray of syringes. Around them, the computer banks hummed to life.

"Roll up your sleeve," she said, holding out an elastic band. "If you want to start on the sequencer, I'd be happy to separate the platelets on some samples. I can start some cultures and prepare slides."

The Doctor smiled at her. "So good to have a science officer with me. Though I may ask you to man the sequencer as well. This CRISPR isn't going to be able to do what I want out of the box, so I've got a heavy load of reprogramming ahead of me just now."

"Sure, I can do that. Just tell me what you need," Kate said. She jabbed him in with a hypo, then twisted off the end and plugged in test tubes, one by one, to fill with his blood.

"Well," River interrupted. "I'll leave you two to your science. Just in case starting up the power set off any alarms, I'm going to check the perimeter." She had her staser in hand again, seemingly from nowhere. She looked through a small window in the door to the room, then quickly opened it, and entered the hallway outside.

It was dark and quiet in the hallway. A thick layer of dust had formed, obscuring the checkerboard pattern on the floor. River shone a torch down both directions. One way ended in metal double doors with a push bar, the other direction ended in a T-shaped intersection. Lockers filled the space between doors off the hallway, giving the impression of a school building. In place of spirit banners, however, were propaganda posters. A sun-faded representation of the Droge, pointing the way to the future here, and encouragement to report neighbors who spoke ill of her there.

River peered in through the window in another door to find a very similar room to the one they'd started in. She walked quietly down the hallway toward the double doors, stirring up swirls of dust in her wake. She peeked in through a couple more windows to verify that this wing at least, was devoted to lab space.

She pressed down on the handle of the doors, and shook them. They were locked, but this wasn't the height of security. She produced a tiny white disk from her cleavage and affixed it to one of the doors. She then twisted it, and a dim red light started slowly blinking.

River turned and headed back toward the T. She switched off her torch, and approached with her back to the wall for the last few meters. She edged her head out, and looked both ways. Nothing but darkness in either direction, so she chanced the torch. The left side ended with an identical set of double doors, and to the right there was a four-way intersection. On each of the corners was what looked to be administrative offices with large windows looking out into the corridors.

She first headed left and secured the doors with another small disk, then returned to the administrative offices. She tried the door knob of the first. Locked. She held the torch between her teeth and produced her sonic screwdriver. The sonic buzzed, and she was in. There were a set of filing cabinets against two walls, and in front of the windows, two computer stations and a microphone, a large panic button, and a smaller button to buzz the doors open. From this point of view, the facility looked more like a prison than a school.

On a whim, she opened the first cabinet and started leafing through the files there. The adhesive on the labels had long ago crumbled to dust, and they dislodged at her touch. The writing was faded, and the paper brittle, but she managed to piece together that everything here was in chronological order. Mostly deliveries, shipments, but records of the clocking in and out of all the workers as well. "All probably backed up on the computer as well. My, but you were a stickler for documentation." She shut the cabinet and went to the last one instead. "Let's see what you've been up to lately…"

She knelt to access the bottom drawer of the last cabinet, only to find it empty. She opened the one above it, empty again. The next one was half full of files, and she pulled out the furthest one back. She placed it on top of the cabinet and browsed through its contents. "This is the mothball order for this facility," she murmured to herself. The date tag had slipped down inside the folder, and she pulled it out, holding it in front of the torchlight. She quickly did the math. "That was over eight hundred fifty years ago!" She shone the flashlight around the room and out into the corridor. "I expected more of a museum if that was true. Why else keep it around?"

She had no idea how much time passed, while she looked through the records of the labs preservation, but she was stirred back to reality when she heard a noise in the distance, and River's instincts kicked in. She clicked off the torch and crouched slightly, every sense alive for the source of the sound. It had been the screech of metal, long accustomed to its position, being forced to move. She sat silently, waiting to hear it again, eyes darting to cover the breadth of periphery that the corner windows allowed. She was met with only silent darkness.

She set the file down slowly, and stepped toward the door. Her eyes were becoming more and more adjusted to the near-dark. Dim moonlight, or perhaps streetlights entered the classrooms and exited again as the slightest of glows through the small windows in the hallway doors.

She paused with her hand on the doorknob, ready to pull it open quickly, but silently. She became aware of a red light, barely above the level of the ambient, that was slowly blinking. She looked around for the source. Both computer monitors had a tiny blinking light in the corner. She let go of the door handle and approached the computers. She pressed a key, and they instantly came to life. Each monitor was divided into eight equal sections, each displaying a view of one of the classrooms. There, in the middle of the second monitor she could see the Doctor and Kate talking. More than that, their voices came over the monitor's speakers.

"There should be enough there for two doses. We can make more later, but I need to test it now," the Doctor was saying. He filled a syringe, and handed a tube to Kate, who stood by with another.

"I have to stop this from broadcasting!" River said out loud, kneeling to frantically pull out the two computers. She turned them around, but there were no data cables. She set down her staser and pulled out her sonic, running it over the back panels.

She could hear Kate's voice in response to the Doctor. "I still say it would be safer to test this on someone else first. You've got an entire galaxy of candidates."

River stopped, stunned, as she realized the computers weren't broadcasting, but receiving. "The cameras themselves are broadcasting! Anyone could be getting this!"

She grabbed her staser and threw the door open, abandoning any pretext of stealth. She ran down the hallway, following the tracks she'd made on the way out. She burst into the lab, and the Doctor and Kate turned at the noise. The Doctor was holding one arm in the air, with gauze pressed against the crook of his elbow.

"It's a trap. That's why it's been mothballed. She knows you're here!" She scanned the room with her sonic. "There are cameras in here everywhere, broadcasting back to her!" The sound of her sonic increased in pitch until there was a tiny pop from one part of the ceiling.

"It doesn't matter, River," the Doctor said, lowering his arm. "You'll never get them all before her troops arrive. Just stand close with your vortex manipulator ready. I still need access to the lab equipment, and we can make a very speedy exit if needs be." He turned to Kate. "Prepare another slide and syringe. I want to see what's going on."

River started punching buttons on her vortex manipulator as she closed the door and looked through the little window. "I don't think we're going to have time for that." She ran to the outside window, and carefully looked out into the streets outside. There was no gathering army, so far as she could tell.

"It's alright, River. I want her to see," the Doctor said. Kate approached and drew some blood. "She was always going to be the first to find out anyway."

Kate prepared the slide while River rejoined them. "What are you hoping to see?"

"Well, it's early. But hopefully we'll see fewer of the little yellow cells on the slide, and the white ones will be in good condition. It'll still be hit and miss on the withdrawal symptoms, but shouldn't be fatal, if everything looks okay."

"And this will work?" River asked hopefully. "On everyone, not just you?"

"Cross your fingers?" the Doctor said.

Instead she held his hand. "We make our own luck."

"Here goes nothing," Kate said. She positioned the slide under the microscope, and they waited for the image to come into focus on the monitor.

The Doctor was biting his thumbnail, staring anxiously at the screen. "Do you have to do that?" River asked. He glanced over at her, then wiped his hands off on his pants, returning his gaze to the screen.

The image came into focus. "Damn," Kate said. "Nothing's changed." The screen was dominated by deep red disks, but pushing in between them were pale yellow, spiky balls. River recognized a white blood cell, which should be a large white puffy ball, but looked partially deflated and had a greenish tinge.

"Worse than that," the Doctor said. He found himself biting his thumbnails again. "Look at the red of these cells. O2 saturation levels are dropping. Withdrawal is starting."

"Okay then," River said. "We find another lab, one she doesn't know about, and we try again."

"You don't understand. That was an all or nothing shot. If that didn't work, there is no try again." He turned to look River in the eyes. "It's something about the organic source of this drug. There _is_ no cure for it."

There was a click behind them, then another, then a dozen more. All the monitors in the lab were coming on, with an image of the Droge's face filling each. "And _that_ was the second moment I was talking about. That was the money shot! The one that goes on the 5 o'clock news! There _is_ no cure for it!"

She went into a fit of laughter, that lasted nearly a minute. River, the Doctor and Kate stepped closer together.

The Droge stopped laughing instantly. " _Come on, Doctor!_ Of course I knew you'd get out of that cell. Of course I knew you'd try to find a cure. And where would you go? The same place as last time. You are _so_ predictable! Didn't you even wonder why all the equipment and chemicals you would need were waiting there for you? I laid this trap centuries ago, and it was only a matter of time until you and I were right here."

She sat back in her throne, quickly bored. "Wrap it up, boys. Bring me my toy. And that promiscuous wife of mine as well. I don't know who the other one is, but it'll be fun to pull her wings off."

She leaned back in toward the camera. "And don't you go trying to teleport away again. We've got a nifty little denial field running." She sat back again and went back to laughing.

River quickly pressed a couple buttons on her vortex manipulator, then met the Doctor's eyes. "I'm sorry, my Love."


	3. No Escape

"River?" the Doctor said.

"Yes, my Love?"

"Change the channel."

"With pleasure." River held her sonic screwdriver out at arms length, and activated it. The monitors around the room began sparking one by one, and went out.

"Kate, the cameras?"

"Yes, of course." She pulled out the Doctor's sonic and held it toward the ceiling. The tip glowed red and it warbled dissonantly. Small sparks accompanied by a popping sound spread throughout the room. When they stopped, she deactivated the sonic and reattached it to her belt.

"Are you sure you got them all," River asked.

"I've made some adjustments since that old thing," the Doctor said, indicating River's sonic. Suddenly, he became quite urgent, grabbing her by both arms and holding her close. "There's no time to go over it now, River, but I have a plan. Do you trust me?"

River was taken aback by the question. "Always," she said.

"Good. Then it's very important that we don't get captured right now. And if I know my wife, there is no way that you walked into this place without a backup plan. What is it?"

River smiled and gently pushed free of the Doctor's grasp. "Careful, my Love, you're taking the mystery out of things." She pulled a small white disk from her cleavage and activated it. She tossed it to the ground across the room, where it stuck to the floor as if magnetized.

The sounds of shouting came from outside in the hallway, and the double bang of metal doors flying open into cinderblock walls. River looked to the others. "Get down!" she shouted.

They threw themselves to the ground, and River lifted her sonic. The end glowed red, and the three white disks she'd distributed around the building went off in massive explosions. They were pelted by debris from the explosion.

Kate felt a tugging on her shoulder, and looked up to see River standing over her shouting something inaudible. The ringing in her own ears was entirely deafening, but she got the message. Get up. Move.

The three of them got up and ran toward the hole River's disk had made in the floor. Misshapen pipes jutted out around the edges, and wires sparked with electricity. River took the lead, jumping down onto the rubble below.

The Doctor urged Kate downward. He and Kate had spent months together under near-constant surveillance, and had developed a complex means of covert and non-vocal communication. "The explosions won't slow them down," he said. "Any death her soldiers might face is better than forced withdrawal."

Kate followed, then the Doctor. River was already running down a dark passageway, her torch beam visible ahead of her. She turned and yelled something at them, but it still came to them as if their ears were stuffed with cotton. They picked up on the urgency of her expression, however, and hurried after her.

They caught up to River as she was climbing a ladder to street level. She pushed aside a cover and placed one of her white disks on the lip of the opening. Kate started to follow her up the ladder, but River shook her head and pointed on down the main sewer. She slid back down the ladder and continued on. Their hearing was coming back now, and they could just about make it out when she said, "Quickly, we have to get around that bend before they see us."

They made it around the corner, and a little further down the next passageway to where there was a four-way intersection. Satisfied that none of their pursuers saw the ruse, River relaxed at this point. "This way, back toward the palace," she said quietly.

" _Toward_ the palace?" Kate asked.

"Yes. Once they figure out we didn't exit at that ladder, they'll scour the sewers. They won't be expecting us to head toward them, and if the Droge does decide to cut her losses and just firebomb it all, I doubt she'll risk destroying her own palace, given that she can't leave."

Kate nodded her understanding and agreement. The group continued on, River leading the way. She seemed to know where she was going, because she took an occasional turn for the better part of half an hour before coming to a stop beneath another ladder.

"This is as far as we go. We're in a residential area not far from the palace. Let's see if this works now. Both of you, grab hold."

The Doctor and Kate took hold of River's shoulders, and she rapidly pressed several buttons on her vortex manipulator, but nothing happened.

"Damn," she said. "Well, I know a place we can hide for a bit. Let me just see if it's clear." She climbed the ladder, and lifted the cover a centimeter or two so she could look around. Satisfied, she pushed it to the side and climbed up.

They emerged into a large square, surrounded by apartment buildings. Atop the buildings were the ubiquitous propaganda billboards showing the Droge, not as she really is, but with legs, helping at a soup kitchen, or guest-appearing on a popular chat show, or encouraging children to study hard in school. The advertisements cycled through each appearance, but there were so many billboards surrounding the square, one could see all of the messages at once.

There were children playing on the far end of the square in the late evening dusk, light drifted out of most of the windows they could see, and somewhere, music was softly playing. As River and the Doctor worked the cover back into place, figures appeared silhouetted in many of the windows.

The Doctor turned to face the closest one, his arm held painfully rigid at his side, and the shutters immediately closed. He looked around at the windows on the square, and everywhere, shutters were closing, drapes were drawn and lights were turned out. The music stopped playing.

The ball that the kids were playing with took a bad bounce and headed toward the newcomers. The Doctor jogged toward the ball and stopped it with his foot. One of the children had been running toward it, but he stopped in his tracks, watching the Doctor cautiously.

"It's alright. We may be strangers, but we're not trouble. Here," he said, his voice shaking, and kicked the ball back toward the child.

A woman dressed for chores appeared in a doorway, "Laurence, Ferdie! Come inside now!" she said. A nervous quaver betrayed her voice. The child stood watching the Doctor for a while longer, as the ball rolled past him. Whatever spell that held him there snapped, and the child turned and ran. One of the other children joined him, and the two headed together to the woman. The third child ran toward his own home, and the Doctor, River and Kate were left alone in the large square with the abandoned ball.

"We should be moving," River said. "This way." She turned and left the square. The Doctor and Kate followed.

She led them out of the square and down the block. As they came around the corner, the palace rose into view, but soon River took another right turn, into an area of high-walled warehouses.

She stopped in front of a door in a long wall, and brought out her sonic screwdriver. She quickly had the door open, and she ushered them inside the building, looking nervously back up the street. The interior of the warehouse looked like it had recently finished construction and hadn't yet been occupied. A few pieces of bare shelving had been assembled in rows on one side of the room, but pallets of shrink-wrapped kits lay stacked next to an office on the far side.

Once they were inside and the door closed behind them, River turned to the Doctor. "How are your symptoms?" she asked.

"Are you sure this place is secure?"

"Security through obscurity, my Love. There's no reason for anyone to know we're here. Now answer the question."

"A bit of nausea, and the muscles all down my left side won't relax. Not overly bad so far. Why?"

"Because I'm going to go out there to secure you another dose so we'll have time to think this out."

"Don't you dare, River. The supply is carefully regulated. Anything you get for me will be denying someone else of their dose."

"This isn't the time to take the high road! So someone will suffer! It's just one person! And some day later, when you are saving the universe, I bet they'd say it was worth it," River argued.

"It doesn't work that way, River. You don't compare the lives you hurt now to the ones you save later, because all you have is now. At this moment, who you are, and what you are willing to do is all that matters. And I will not let one person — not one single ignorant and uncaring life — suffer in place of me!"

A voice from outside, electronically amplified, interrupted them. "Oh, Doctor, you're doing the boring thing again!" the Droge was whining. "All this chasing around and hiding from me is just taking forever! It's stupid and pointless, because you know how it's going to end! So, I'm ending it. Find a billboard. Take a seat. You're going to want to see this."

The Doctor stood back, looking out the high windows. "Where's the nearest billboard?" he said. He ran to the other side of the warehouse, scanning the windows on the far side.

"Over here," River called. The Doctor and Kate joined her. Through one of the high windows, they could see most of a billboard. The propaganda videos were gone, and in their place were a group of the Droge's guards in their golden armor, looking like stylized, plastic Roman soldiers. Kneeling in front of them was a crying woman in a dirty apron, and three young boys. The Doctor quickly recognized the young man whose ball he'd tried to return.

The Droge's voice could be heard over the scene. "You see, I don't know if they helped you, but I really can't take that chance. All I know for sure is you spoke with them, and that's enough for me. Guards!"

The guards who were holding the prisoners down, drew oddly-shaped red guns and placed them against the head of their captive.

"No!" the Doctor shouted. He headed toward the door, but River grabbed his arm.

"Please, my Love. Don't give yourself up."

"I have to, River. She's right. And it's not even about them," the Doctor said, pointing with his good arm up toward the screen. "The Droge is capable of atrocities that I can't allow to happen, and the only way to stop her is to give myself up."

River swallowed hard, then took his hand. "Together then."

"No, River. She'll only use you against me, and you know I'll do anything she asks."

"It hardly matters. As soon as you go out there, she'll simply threaten to kill them if I don't come out. If we go to face our fates, we go together. Side by side."

A moment passed between them, looking into each other's eyes, and the Doctor nodded. Then he turned to Kate. Not you though. We'll say we lost you in the sewers. It's time for you to disappear. River, give her your vortex manipulator."

River looked like she was going to object, but the Doctor quickly continued. "Maybe they'll turn off the denial field after they have us, and it's better she has it than the Droge. If we make it out of this, I promise, the next time we meet, I'll give you another. The staser too."

River reluctantly removed the device from her wrist and handed it to Kate, followed by the pistol.

Kate accepted them with a nod, then turned to the Doctor. "Until we see each other again," she said. She activated her belt buckle and disappeared.

"Come on out, Doctor," the Droge's amplified voice continued. "We both know you want to save them. I'll give you thirty seconds."

The Doctor squeezed River's hand. "Together," he said. She nodded, and they ran for the door.

* * *

They quickly made it back to the square and faced off against the line of guards. "Okay, Droge. Call them off. You've got what you want."

The Droge's laughter filled the square. "You see? Boring. We could have avoided all of this. Guards, let's see them in cuffs."

Four of her guards left the line and approached them. The Doctor and River didn't resist as they pulled their arms behind them and tightened cuffs around their wrists.

The Droge's face filled the billboards of the square. "The thing is, I can't have them telling a different story about you than I do. In my version, the Doctor is vicious and cruel. Not the sort of person who would turn himself over to save a stranger. So… They kind of have to go anyway. Guards!"

"No!" the Doctor yelled.

The guards fired their guns. The woman and children were splattered with a red dye. The woman screamed and tried to cover her two children. The guards dragged her away from them. They walked all the way around her and the kids and continued firing, covering them completely in red dye.

The Doctor was confused. He expected laser fire, or possibly concussive force. River understood immediately. "They've been marked. The dye will last longer than the withdrawal, and now they'll be shunned. No one will give them Milk, or even associate with them. They will die horribly, and they'll do it completely alone despite the crowd."

The Doctor's face hardened dangerously.

* * *

They were brought before the Droge again, but this time with full council. The pews were full, and her three husbands and two remaining wives were lined up beside the throne. The line of guards came to a halt and threw their captives to the floor. River fell to her knees, but the Doctor's left knee wouldn't bend, and he fell heavily on his chest.

The Droge watched with something like delight for a while, as the Doctor struggled, sweating on the floor, then she turned to River.

"So, wife to be, I've had some time to think about our relationship. I've got to admit, I'm having my doubts. Looking back, it's remarkable that I fell for you so quickly. That's really unlike me."

She waited for any response from River, but she knelt there stoically, defiantly.

"Come on, what's your story? What made you flip sides and throw in your lot with him?"

River continued to be silent, but the Droge wasn't letting it vex her. "That's alright. I'll put it together." She leaned back in her throne and propped up on one elbow. "So. The Doctor was here a thousand years ago, and he met up with a resistance group. Only, there wasn't much they could do on their own, other than ration and stockpile the drug. But then he managed to manufacture a cure, and suddenly they had a hero. That's just stating the obvious. Fast-forward. He leaves, and I start working on my Milk, re-hooking the galaxy. This time, there's no chance of a stockpile, or a resistance, but you've still got your hero. He's passed down as a story, generation after generation. But for a thousand years? Wow. That's almost impressive. Anyway, maybe you didn't even believe the stories until you saw him for yourself, and there he was, the embodiment of a millennium of hope. You believed that crap, and seized your chance. Sound about right?"

"Like my life, laid bare in front of me," River said.

The Droge nodded, then looked at the Doctor and pulled a curious face. "It's odd, Doctor. I really expected that I'd be enjoying this more. The thing is, I can see you aren't going to stop trying. Are you?"

This time it was the Doctor's turn to be unresponsive. He just lay on the floor, breathing hard and convulsing occasionally.

"Yeah, you totally are. You see, the way I always dreamed it, there was some limit to the pain you could take, and the pain you'd be willing to watch me inflict. You'd see the reasonable course once you realized the outcome was inevitable. Of course, I'd still get bored of you eventually, but I figured you have a few centuries in you at least."

She sighed and threw up her hands. "But I can see, I'm going to have to devote resources to you. You're going to escape. That's a given. Just going around and fixing all the exploits you find in my security… Man, I'd have one secure cell in a few years. But then I'd have to keep sending people off to collect you, then I'd have to make an example of a few people each time. God, I'm getting bored just saying it!"

The Doctor worked to position himself so he could look her in the eyes. "I'll work with you willingly if you let those people live. No more painting people red. You and I could work together. Maybe I can't cure this thing, but given time we could make is so the withdrawal isn't fatal —"

"No!" the Droge yelled at him. "God! Boring! You're still trying to save people. What made you think I'd agree to that? What made you think you have anything to offer that I'd want?"

The Doctor collapsed a bit. "I had to try," he said.

"I'll tell you what's going to happen," the Droge said, calm again. "I can't have your continued survival giving anyone else this kind of hope. Look what it's done to her. No, as much enjoyment as it gives me to see you suffer, I have to end you today. Livestream the whole thing. Every camera in the galaxy is pointed at you right now. Make no mistake, the Doctor is going to die horribly today, and the only story that will be told from this point on is how your eyes rolled and your mouth foamed in your last tortured breaths. And by the looks of you, we won't have long to wait either." She sat back in her throne, drumming her fingers on the arm.

River watched her, waiting for her to change her fickle mind or start gloating again, or something. This couldn't be it. But the Droge just sat there, a slight smile on her lips. River looked down at the Doctor, who was sweating profusely now, and shaking almost constantly. She looked back at the Droge, and their eyes met for a moment. The Droge's smile widened.

"You can't!" River blurted. "Give him my dose!"

The Droge's smile faltered. "You would really _die_ for him? Suffer that kind of agony?" she asked, indicating the Doctor, flailing on the floor. "Believe me, he's covering it well. It's worse than it looks."

"I'd die for him a thousand times! Suffer the worst agony the universe has to offer!"

"Because of a _story_?"

"Yes! You have no idea what you are doing! You could search the entire galaxy and beyond, and you'd never find another man like him! The things he is capable of — the things he is willing to do! Even you owe your worthless life to him, numerous times, but you don't even know it! He doesn't take the credit, he doesn't advertise, and he doesn't need to sit on some stupid throne to lord it over people!"

The Droge's face flashed red with anger, but as she opened her mouth to scream at River, she stopped in sudden realization. "Oh my god. I should have seen it. You actually know him from before this. And I think the Doctor knows you too. You've been out there. I don't care who he is, there's no way anyone would die for him if they've ever tasted withdrawal." The Droge began to smile again. "You. Guard. Prepare her a dose. I want the Doctor to see her shoot up before he dies."

The indicated guard pushed the curtain aside and disappeared behind it.

"What do you think Doctor? Will this make it even worse for you? Or are you too far gone to even notice at this — Ouch! What the hell was that?" She turned to look behind her, but of course could see nothing with the curtain in the way.

"That," the Doctor said, "was the end of the charade." He shook himself free of the handcuffs and got to his feet. "Kate, if you could just manage the curtains, please?"

"What?!" both the Droge and River said in unison.

The Doctor massaged his wrists and dropped the cuffs on the floor. "Now, before you get angry, remember I said I had a plan, and I asked for some faith."

"I hate you so badly right now," River said.

The curtains began to rise.

The Droge began to panic, her fiction about to be exposed. "Guards! Stop this! Lower the curtains!"

The Doctor spoke with a clear and commanding voice. "Guards, stay where you are. You don't have to take her orders any more."

They stopped, unsure of who to listen to, as the curtain continued to rise.

"No Milk for any of you unless that curtain stops _now_!"

"And you can stop giving orders, you're no longer in charge. Allow me to introduce Kate Stewart. She's Chief Science Officer of the United Intelligence Taskforce, charged with the defense of that little planet you plucked me from."

Kate shimmered into view, a smug look on her face, and a hypodermic needle in her hand. The curtain had risen all the way by now, and the gathered masses let out a collective gasp upon seeing the Droge's massive tail end.

The Doctor gave the crowd a moment, then began to pace as he spoke. "The thing is, you knew this was incurable before you brought me here. It was the only thing that made sense. Once I found out that you were producing it biologically, it all fell into place. The drug rewired the victim's DNA to where they'd never survive without it. Even attempting to administer a cure could prove fatal. But there was a flaw. Can you guess what it was?"

The Droge was beet red by this point. "Guards! Stop listening, and _kill him_! I _order you_!"

No one reacted to her fury, only making her angrier.

"How about I just tell you, then?" the Doctor continued. "Milk has no ill effects aside from the withdrawal. Once you've settled into a routine, you need a daily dose, but you can still think straight. It doesn't shorten your life, and it doesn't mess with your system as long as you're properly dosed. If you spread that dose throughout the day, the amount that any individual needs is actually infinitesimal. And if _you_ could produce it biologically, you'd better believe that I can too."

The Droge went from beet red to ghost white almost instantly.

The Doctor smiled and tapped his head. "Now you see. I didn't bother trying to cure your designer drug, I just changed it slightly. It already rewrites the body's DNA, I just altered mine a little further. I grew a tiny little gland, no bigger than my pituitary, that produces enough of your drug to avoid withdrawals. The prick you just felt was Kate giving you a dose, changing the drug you produce."

"I will kill myself before I let you win," the Droge said in a voice shaking with anger.

"I don't think your guards will let you. I'm very sorry for what I had to do. I pity you. I really do. Yesterday, you were ruler of a galaxy. Today you are it's sole victim."

He became very quiet, speaking only to the Droge. " Don't worry, they'll keep you alive. You are still the sole dispensary of this drug, but a single dose will cure the victim."

He turned to face the crowd. "You're in shock. But that will wear off, and you will be angry. Before that happens, you need to listen. Do not rush her, and do not take your anger out on her. You would be killing trillions. Her survival means the galaxy's survival. The distributers who have enslaved you your entire life are your life-line. Your next dose is the last one you'll ever need. Show them mercy and when this is all over, teach them a skill. You've got some very nice sewers. Someone needs to clean them."

He motioned for Kate to join them. "Sonic," he said when she got close. She pulled out his sonic screwdriver, and the Doctor used it to remove River's handcuffs.

He looked back up at the guards who remained motionless, then turned to see the crowd still standing in their pews. Some of them were talking in hushed tones, but mostly they were still looking on in shock. He turned back to the guards. "You're free. Understand? Here, take that throne apart."

The Droge was hyperventilating, and looking around in panic as the guards approached her. "No. Don't," she said, but with no force.

The guards grabbed her throne from both sides, pulling it apart. Her prosthetic legs fell to the ground, leaving her true form visible and undeniable. The gallery broke into commotion, and someone screamed. The people in lab coats behind the curtain rushed to the Droge and filled their beakers from the ducts along her sides. They barely got back to their workbenches before giving themselves the first dose of freedom.

"That's more what I was expecting," the Doctor said.

"That takes care of everybody here," River said, "now how about the rest of the galaxy?"

"Ah, but remember what she said." The Doctor looked up and turned around, arms opened wide. "Every camera in the galaxy is pointed at us right now."

Suddenly he turned and ran toward the crowd. The people in the front row stumbled over each other getting out of his way as he jumped up onto the pew and balanced on its back. "Take a good look at her! Look, and remember! Pass this story on to your children. And don't let me catch _anyone_ trying to take over her business! Or taking advantage of the people of your worlds, or even driving up the prices of flour tortillas! Because I will be checking on you, and I will not let this happen again!"

He looked slowly around the room, making eye contact with a great many of them, then directly into the cameras he could pinpoint. Then he stepped back down off the pew, and joined River and Kate. "We should think about going." He grabbed one of the guards by the shoulders and spun him around. "That teleport denial field — I'd appreciate it if you'd disable it."

* * *

"So, it's a brand new body then? They didn't just regenerate your cellular structure?" the Doctor asked River once they were back in the warehouse.

"Brand spanking new, and I'm dying to break it in."

"Hem. Yes. The thing is, I don't understand where they got your DNA from to clone you a whole new body."

"Actually, I've been thinking about that a lot as well, and I've come to the conclusion that they didn't. Sure, it looks exactly like me, freckles in all the right places, but…" She took the Doctor's hand and placed it on her chest.

He wore a curious expression for a while, then suddenly his eyes widened. "Two hearts!"

"Yes," River breathed.

"They grew you a Time Lord body! So what does that mean? Can you regenerate?"

"Time _Lady_ would be my preferred term, and I don't know. I'm not in a huge hurry to find out."

"Is there any reason we can't continue this voyage of self-discovery back on Earth?" Kate Stewart interrupted. "It's just that there was an alien armada in orbit when we left, and we have no guarantee that they didn't just decide to attack after all."

"Yes. You should go," River said. "Only, I'm not going with."

"What? Why not?" the Doctor asked.

"Sweetie. You've already told me enough to know that we are still heading in opposite directions. Though, for the first time, I actually believe one day we may travel together. For now, there are some good people who died so we could be together again, and their families deserve to know about their sacrifice. You go ahead. I'll make my own way. And I'll see you again. With the Rutan."

"If you're sure…"

River smiled. "Go."

The Doctor nodded. "Kate?" he said. She held out her arm. The Doctor took the staser from her, holding it daintily between thumb and forefinger, and handed it to River. Then he tapped a few keys on the vortex manipulator, and he and Kate vanished.

River turned, still smiling. "Now. Let's see what you've got in you." She walked across the concrete floor to the door of the office in the center of the warehouse. She threw open the door, and stood in the threshold. "Mind you, you've got a lot to live up to."

Her footsteps echoed in the large, empty room as she crossed to stand in front of one wedge of the console. She ran her fingers over the sparse buttons and levers there, and grasped hold of one large lever just off to the right of center. "But first, we simply _must_ do something about this desktop theme."

She pushed the lever forward, laughing heartily.

Outside, the warehouse faded to the noise of the Tardis engine entering the vortex.

* * *

Kate and the Doctor reappeared inside the Black Archives artifact storage level. The Doctor looked around until he spotted his Tardis, and a smile spread across his face. He reached down to the hem of his hoodie and tugged at a loose thread. The hem began to unravel, and as the thread came loose, tied to the end of it was a Tardis key.

"I thought you gave that to Pandora," Kate commented.

"A spare. It was about time she had one, frankly."

"Will you be heading off to see her now? She didn't seem to be taking it well when you left."

The Doctor silently turned his key over and over in his hands for a while before answering. "Not just yet. I've got a promise to keep, and I don't want her seeing me like this."

"Doctor, everyone goes through the mind-wipe when they leave. It's protocol. I'm going to have to ask you to do this the right way this time."

"Are you?"

"Yes. I can't go making exceptions. There are still those who worry we may one day have to defend against _you_."

"Understood. And that is your prerogative, this being your planet. But there's something you should know first."

"Is it important?"

"Could be." The Doctor held out his other hand with the vortex manipulator in it.

Kate looked down at her own bare arm, then back up at the Doctor. He disappeared from in front of her, and reappeared at the door to his Tardis. He placed his key in the lock. Kate instinctively reached for her gun, but of course she was unarmed.

"Here," the Doctor said as he pushed the door open. He tossed the vortex manipulator across the room. Kate caught it, and looked up in time to watch the door close behind the Doctor.

"Doctor!" Kate shouted angrily, but there was no reply. The light on top of the police box began to pulse to the rhythm of the engines, as the Tardis faded from view.

* * *

A klaxon woke Eric, and the LEDs of his suit's eyes powered up. Red light spun around his quarters as he sat up and got his bearings. "Computer!" he called out in his mechanical gravelly voice. "Shut off that alarm!"

Once the noise had stopped and he was able to hear himself thing, he pushed himself out of the micro-bead sack that supported his armor's mass while he slept. He got to his terminal and quickly checked ship status.

They'd dropped out of hyperwarp.

Eric cursed under his breath, and punched the button to communicate with the twins. "Spine! Wilkit! Why did we drop out of hyperwarp? We're three weeks early!"

"Wilkit's face appeared on the screen. "Not sure, sir. Computer didn't register anything abnormal." His voice was tinged with urgency.

"I can see that! That's why I asked you," Eric said.

"Never mind that now," Spine pushed Wilkit out of the way. "That's not why the siren went off!"

"Eric punched several more buttons on his terminal, but the answer didn't come quickly to him, so he asked, "Then why the hell did the siren go off?"

Wilkit pushed his way back in, and Spine moved into the background, twisting a valve with an enormous spanner. "We dropped out of hyperwarp in the outer atmosphere of a star! The gravity sheering caused extensive damage to the port side engine, as well as the inertial compensators! There were hull breaches all over, and we vented a significant percentage of atmosphere before I could shut the bulkheads!"

Eric slammed his fist into his wall. "How is this possible! There weren't any star systems along our route!"

"We aren't _on_ our route! We're way off course. As far as I can tell, we aren't on _any_ route!"

Eric got himself under control. He had a temper, but there was a reason he was in charge. "Okay. We'll figure that out later. Right now we need to get back under control. What's our current status?"

"We've broken free of the star's gravity well, but we were traveling way faster than spec when we dropped out of warp. We're heading toward one of the system's planets, and our retrorockets aren't nearly powerful enough to slow us down."

"How long do we have before planetfall?"

"Fifteen minutes. Maybe?"

"That should be plenty of time to reroute power from the main thrusters!"

"Sure, maybe," Wilkit said. "Back when we had Glorr here!"

Spine cut back in. "Now it's just the two of us down here, and we don't know the systems like she did!"

"Then activate the solar brake on one side! Anything to alter our current course!"

Suddenly an explosion rocked the ship. "What the hell was that, now?"

"Hang on," Wilkit said. He tapped frantically at the keyboard. "Damn! That was the starboard engine. We've lost them both now!"

"How did that happen? I thought we'd cleared the star's gravity well?"

"There _is_ no logical reason. There's no reason at all for—" He looked away from the screen. Just at the edge of his hearing, Eric could make out an odd sound, like a asthmatic, mechanical billows. "What the hell is that, now?"

The klaxon started up again and Eric punched through the wall, ripping out cables until it stopped.

Wilkit and Spine were both at the monitor. "Sir, I think we should abandon ship."

"Perhaps you didn't notice, _morons_ , but this is a slave ship. We don't have any life pods! We're going to hit that planet, so it's your job to make sure it's more landing than crash!"

Eric hung up on them and made his way to the bridge. He took a moment to just look at the planet they were heading for. It looked to be mostly green and pink, but the colors shifted, and he realized this was some peculiarity of the atmosphere. He sat in the captain's chair, and pressed the button that strapped him into place. Then he pressed another button and spoke loudly. "Mayday, Mayday. Ship going down, position unknown. Triangulate on this signal. We are _very rich_ and I'll make our rescue exceedingly worthwhile." He was going to say more, but he glanced at the controls and realized the message wasn't getting out. External comms were down as well. He watched the planet grow to fill the view screen ahead of him.

He flipped another switch for internal communication. "To all crew, find a safe place and bunker down. We're heading for a crash, and we've got no inertial compensators. This is going to hurt."

He switched off the comms, then had a second thought and switched them back on. "Mycotis, Z'krith, if I die in this crash, but either of the twins survive, kill them." He flipped the switch again.

The ship plowed into a fertile valley just over the dawn-line of the swiftly turning planet. The twins, to their credit, managed to pick a flat area without obstructions, and they kept the ship's nose up. No one walked away completely unscathed, but they all managed to walk away. They met outside the ship, then walked a safe distance, in case any of the ship's volatiles ignited. They turned and watched the ship smolder for some time.

"How far off the shipping lanes are we?" Eric finally asked.

"Not as far as you might think, but we're in a gap where no one ever goes."

A voice startled them from behind. "That's because it's uninhabited." The group turned to see the Doctor leaning against a blue crate. "It was of no interest to the Droge because there were no people to control. There are five planets in the system, one for each of you, and they are all uninhabited." He pushed himself away from the crate, and walked a few steps toward them. "Welcome to your bounty. You were promised a star system, and now you have one. All to yourselves."

In the blink of an eye, Eric had his pistol out, and fired several shots at the Doctor. Wilkit and Spine followed suit, leveling their massive rifles at him and firing a barrage of plasma bolts at him. They were all absorbed by the air just a few inches in front of the Doctor.

The Doctor cocked his thumb back toward the crate. "I extended my ship's shields out far enough so we could have a chat. A Dalek battle fleet couldn't get to me now."

Eric holstered his weapon, and managed to keep his voice level. "We will escape, Doctor. And we will come for you. We will burn your precious Earth."

"I don't know. That ship looks pretty beat up. Your engineer may have been able to do something about that, but she went for a walk, and may be some time."

"Someone will come for us."

"They really won't. I've taken a peek into the future, and no one stops in this system for several hundred years, and even then it's to evacuate their waste subsystems. I know, you're thinking you can get a signal out. But if you saw the pretty colors on the way down, you'll know better. That is one highly energetic sun out there. It's bombarding these planets with deadly cosmic rays. If not for this planet's strong magnetic field, it would have been cooked lifeless. Plays absolute havoc with radio signals, but has the most amazing auroras.

"No, no, no, no, no!" either Spine of Wilkins said. The Doctor still couldn't tell them apart. He was pointing frantically at the fluid cylinders on his back. "You're killing us! Once we're out of milk, we'll die from withdrawal."

"Ah, I've got just the thing," the Doctor said. He ran back to the Tardis, pushed open the door, and came back out with a wooden crate about a foot square. He set it down on the edge of the force field.

"There are five syringes in there, along with some other supplies. Tents, seed packets mostly. Water filtration system and a year's supply of jelly babies. Anyway, one dose of what's in there, and you'll never rely on the Droge for her drug again. As soon as I'm gone, you can open the crate up and start on your new lives." The Doctor turned and headed back to his Tardis.

Eric stopped him. "Wait, what about Mycotis? He's a fungal life form. What happens when he burns through his current host and needs a new one?"

The Doctor turned around, a shocked look on his face. "Is he really?" Then in a complete deadpan, "I honestly hadn't considered that." He looked Mycotis over, and the giant who's back he rode. "Mycotis, eat slowly."

With that, the Doctor disappeared inside the Tardis, and the Tardis disappeared from view.


End file.
